Protester faces jail over online race hate messages

A man who was involved in promoting an anti-immigration petition is facing jail for posting vile race hate messages.

Gary Farrimond initially claimed his Facebook account had been hacked but later admitted a charge of making offensive communication.

The 45-year-old was involved in collecting signatures to a petition calling for an end to ‘economic migrants’ being housed at the Britannia Hotel in Standish, Wigan.

However, he later posted a string of obscene messages on social media, some referring to refugees as part of an “Islamic invasion” and saying black people were “not normal”.

Farrimond, of Avondale Street, Standish, appeared before Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court.

Tess Kenyon, prosecuting, told the court how Farrimond came to the police’s attention after officers were alerted to offensive posts on his Facebook account by a member of the public on Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) Wigan West page.

She said: “On November 12, support officer Price was monitoring the Facebook

account for GMP West when she saw a post from a member of the public.”

Describing Farrimond’s post, Ms Kenyon went on: “There was an image of a Trojan horse with Isis on its forehead and Syrian refugees on its body.”

The post then made reference to refugees as being an “Islamic invasion”.